Rose didn't know what she was expecting when she'd dashed out of the TARDIS. She had hoped that the TARDIS had listened to her and had returned them back to the space station. Instead she stepped out onto her estate and knew that she was stuck. They were stuck back at home, and the Doctor was stuck on Satellite Five, facing down the Daleks on his own. Jack was stuck, dying to save them all, so far into the future that it wasn't even as if they could just wait the long way around. They were stuck. Both of them were stuck. She was stuck.
She'd never been particularly fond of where she lived. It wasn't that she disliked it, she mostly had very little feeling towards it. She just happened to live there. It was the people she liked. But seeing the tower blocks that surrounded her felt incredibly upsetting. They were suddenly a monument to the finality of what had happened. The Doctor was going to die, and there was nothing they could do to save him.
She felt helpless, and running in and trying to get the TARDIS to fly again didn't help that. Seeing Danielle sat on the floor, crying softly and as if she couldn't see her at all didn't help either. Eventually she just had to give up and she had to leave. Everything was a cruel taunt, a reminder of what had suddenly been snatched away from the both, but it turned out being outside wasn't much better.
She leant against the TARDIS, staring at the floor because she didn't want to see the world around her. That was, until, she heard footsteps quickly approach her.
"I knew it!" She looked up to see Mickey, her ex-boyfriend, running towards her. He had a grin on his face, like he was mocking her. But she knew he wasn't. She knew that he just cared and it caused her to start crying as he reached her. "I was all the way down Clifton Parade, and I heard the engines. I thought, there's only one thing that makes a noise like that." He stopped and frowned, seeing how upset she was. "What is it?"
She didn't reply. Instead she hugged him, sobbing into his shoulder. He seemed a little stunned, but did hug her back, which was more than she remembered him doing in the past. Perhaps she wasn't the only one who'd changed since she'd met the Doctor.
"The Doctor," she sobbed. "He-He's dead, and I- I can't help. I can't help him."
Mickey tightened his hold on her, and she did the same in response. He wasn't quite sure how to process that information and he glanced at the TARDIS. If the Doctor was really dead, then how was she back? Did he save her? It didn't feel like Rose would just run away.
"Come on," he said softly. "Let's go see your mum."
Rose shook her head, pulling away and wiping her eyes. "Not-Not yet," she said. "I can't leave Danielle here."
He frowned, confused. "Danielle?"
She nodded and headed back to the TARDIS. She hesitated before opening the door, because it felt wrong that the blue box was there but the piloting Time Lord was not. Still, she opened it and glanced inside.
Danielle had moved, which was a good sign. She was now sat on the floor in front of the console, staring towards the door as she continued to cry. As much pain as Rose was feeling, she couldn't imagine what Danielle was feeling. "Mickey's here," she explained softly. "We're-We're going to my mum's. You should come."
Danielle shook her head. "I'm not leaving," she replied. "I-I can't. I can't just leave them."
Rose, for a moment, felt her hope spike. "Do you know how to get back?" she asked.
"No," she replied, heartbroken. "But I can't just leave. I-I can't…"
Her voice broken and she trailed off, leaning her head against the console and Rose's hope fell away again. Danielle was smart, she couldn't and wouldn't deny that. If she had had no idea how to get back then there really was no hope at all.
But she also understood why she didn't want to leave. Every now and then she would find her mum at the place when her father had died – the one that Rose was all too familiar with now. She would just sit on the side of the road and stare and Rose would sit with her until she was ready to leave.
After all those years she still couldn't love anyone but Pete Tyler.
"Okay," she conceded. "Call me, I'll come get you when you're ready."
Danielle nodded and Rose stepped out to Mickey. He was trying to peek inside to see the girl on the floor. "Isn't she that girl from school who lives by your mum?" he asked.
"Yeah, the Doctor picked her up," she explained as she threaded her fingers through his. Even though she wasn't sure the feelings were still there between them, Mickey was still one of her best friends, and that comfort never left. "They were…"
She trailed off. She wasn't sure what they had been, because the Doctor had always felt a bit too big to be bothered by little 'human' things like relationships. And it really didn't feel like it was her story to tell.
Instead she just leant on his arm and he tightened his grasp on her hand. She hated everything that was happening. She just wanted to go home.
~0~0~0~
Danielle didn't move from the console. Unlike Rose, she didn't see the point of going home. Her mother wouldn't have been home, and she wasn't sure if she would even care. She never seemed too bothered about her, after all. Danielle knew that her mum loved her, but at that moment it didn't feel like it. At that moment, she felt rather alone.
She'd noticed the console room had darkened when Rose left, almost like the TARDIS was as upset as they were at the Doctor's actions. Not that she blamed the mystical machine. She was sure that the TARDIS didn't have much say on whether or not the Doctor sent them all away.
She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to get her crying under control. They weren't massive, gut wrenching sobs, but she just couldn't stop. He was all alone.
She had expected to feel angry at being sent away without her permission, but she hadn't quite hit that yet. Instead she just felt a helplessness that she knew that Rose had felt as well. While Rose had lashed out, trying to do something to change what had happened, Danielle instead felt a heaviness that made her just want to sit and waste away the rest of her life. The Doctor wanted her to live a fantastic life. Now she felt like she had no life at all.
She wasn't sure if that was a healthy outlook to have, but the thought flittered by and she forgot all about it. Every part of her was screaming to go save him. Her brain knew that she couldn't do it. It was an awful feeling that she wallowed in for quite some time. She wasn't sure how long, but she only moved when the ache from the hard floor became just a little unbearable, and all she did was shift to a new position.
She leant her head back against the console. "I know you're not happy about this, either, are you?" she said to the TARDIS. There was no response, she hadn't expected one, but she did feel like the box agreed with her. "Why did he feel the need to send us away? Couldn't we have helped? Were we just in the way?"
Was I just in the way?
That was the real question. She felt awful for both of them, but the selfish part of her just wanted to know what she could have done differently to keep herself by his side. He didn't deserve the burden of fighting the Daleks, and he certainly didn't deserve to do it all alone.
He had kissed her, though. At the time she had thought it to be a reaction to thinking up a brilliant idea. In actuality, it had been a goodbye kiss. He'd known he wasn't going to see her anymore and he'd wanted one last kiss from her. That couldn't have meant that she was in the way, right? He'd wanted her there, but her safety had been too important.
His safety was important too. And now it was too late to tell him that. To show him that.
"What are we going to do, old girl?" she asked the ship. "Tell me what we need to do."
The TARDIS couldn't speak to her, at that moment anyway. But Rose could. The blonde startled Danielle slightly as she chucked open the door and rushed in. She had a grin on her face, and a look in her eyes that Danielle couldn't quite reflect.
"Danni, you won't believe what I've found," she cried as Mickey ran in after her.
"Rose, it's nothing," he tried to tell her but she just shushed him.
"No, it's not, it's something," she quickly retorted. He wouldn't understand, he was never going to understand, but she knew Danielle just might. "You know the old garages out at the edge of the estate? With the dodgy basketball court, where we all used to go have a drink at a weekend?"
Danielle shook her head. "I didn't, but yeah?"
"It's absolutely covered in graffiti, yeah? All along the walls?" Danielle nodded. "And on the floor? It's all the same phrase. Over and over again."
Danielle frowned, not quite knowing what she was aiming for. "Yeah? And?"
Rose smiled, like she had finally found the answer they were both aiming for. "It's Bad Wolf."
"You mean like the Satellite?" she asked. The Doctor had explained that to them when they had been trying to help build the Delta Wave that Satellite 5 had been taken over by the Bad Wolf Corporation, which had been what the Daleks had been hiding behind.
Rose nodded. "And, and, remember that girl, Gwyneth, who sealed away the Gelfth in Cardiff? She mentioned it too; 'the big bad wolf' she called it. I think it's a sign. I think it's telling us we can get back!"
It wasn't much, but it did give Danielle enough hope for her to get off the floor. "What is telling us, though?" she asked. Rose shrugged.
"I don't know, but I'm right, aren't I? It's not just a coincidence?"
She was looking to Danielle to see if she agreed, for confirmation about what she had worked out. Danielle nodded slowly.
"I mean, we've not got much else," she offered. "If it really is a message maybe we do find our way back."
It was an uncertain statement, but Rose latched onto it and made her way to the console. "It can't be that difficult," she reasoned. "All the TARDIS needs to do is make a return trip. Just reverse."
"Yeah, but we still can't do it," Mickey pointed out from her side.
"The Doctor always said the TARDIS was telepathic. This thing is alive," she told him.
"She," Danielle corrected. "But I think you're right. Look at the lights, I think she's sad." Rose hadn't noticed how dark the room had become, but now it had been pointed out she realised just how sad the TARDIS felt. "I think she can hear us."
"It's not listening now, is it?" Mickey said. She shot him a look. Did he have to be so negative when there was someone's life on the line?
"She is," she replied, pointedly. "We just have to work out a way to talk to her in a way that she can understand."
"The Doctor talks to her all the time," Rose added. "Maybe it's because he's alien and we're not. Maybe there's some sort of cable, or keyboard, or sommat that we have to use because we're human?"
Danielle nodded along. She knew it was probably false hope, but at that moment she was ready to deny that there wasn't any chance of them succeeded. She wasn't ready to just give up anymore.
They both began looking around the console, giving every single control, every single switch and button more consideration than they had ever done in the past. Neither of them knew what any of them did, so it was very much based on arbitrary reasoning that they either tried or didn't try the controls, but it was more than they'd had since they'd landed back in London.
Mickey watched Rose focus solely on getting back to the Doctor, and it hurt. She was so adamant that staying behind wasn't the thing she wanted to do. "If you go back, you're going to die."
She nodded. "That's a risk I've got to take, because there's nothing left for me here."
He had suspected that ever since she'd first been brought back by the Doctor, but it still stung to hear it. "Nothing?"
She shook her head, unable to look at him at all. "No."
There was a heavy silence, but neither girl stopped their work. "Okay, if that's what you think," he stated. "Fine."
He turned and walked out of the TARDIS, leaving the two girls alone. Danielle paused what she was doing and looked over at Rose. "That seemed a bit harsh."
Rose continued to search for an answer. She didn't have time to worry about Mickey, or anything else. They needed to get back to the Doctor and save him before it was too late.
~0~0~0~
Danielle slumped against the console, sliding down to the floor again. Rose had come in and given her such high hopes, but they had both tried everything they could think of and they were still stuck on a London estate, with no way of piloting the ship back into the future.
Rose had disappeared into the hallway to try and find a room that might have had a manual, or something, that they could have used. Danielle had stayed to try anything else but so far, she had come up with nothing and the hopelessness was starting to set in again.
"I don't understand what you want us to do," she told the ship. "We just want to save him. Don't you want that too? Don't you want our help?" She sighed, leaning her head back against the cold metal. "It's dangerous, I know. You don't have to protect us, though. I know he told you to, but we can look after ourselves. How about, just this time, we look after him?"
"Oh my god, this is useless!" Rose exclaimed in frustration as she stepped back into the console room. "There's no doors to anywhere! I don't even know where the bathroom has gone."
Danielle frowned. "She must want us in here, then," she offered. "Maybe we are on the right track after all?"
"Or maybe she's just being stubborn," Rose snapped pointedly at the console. Danielle shrugged.
"Well, at least they're suited to each other. It's his stubborn arse that has gotten us into this mess in the first place."
Rose couldn't help but smirk in amusement. "You said a bad word," she teased. In response she just pulled her tongue out, but the usual playfulness between the two wasn't there.
"Maybe we're not supposed to save him," she said softly, although she really did hope she was wrong. "You know, like with your dad?"
The thought had occurred to Rose, but she quickly dismissed it yet again. "No, I refuse to believe that," she said firmly. "I refuse to believe that this is how it all ends! I can't-I can't go back; the Doctor would never give up!"
Danielle closed her eyes. She was right, of course, the Doctor would never give up on doing what was right. That was why he was stuck about to die by Dalek fire, and they were safe and sound in the mundanity of London. He would always try to do what was right, all the way up to the end.
Her eyes stung with tears again. "Please," she whispered to the box. "Let us help him."
There was a loud clang of metal against metal and her eyes shot open. The lighting in the room had changed and she spun on the spot to look around. On the other side of the console a panel had fallen down and a bright light was shining out. Brighter than either girl had ever seen. Danielle scrambled up from the floor and grabbed Rose's arm. "What is that?" she asked. "What did you do?"
"I-I don't know," Rose said slowly "It just opened up. Like she wanted to show us it."
"That feels like a terrible idea," Danielle told Rose, but the blonde girl detangled herself from her grasp and slowly approached it.
"I don't know. If this helps…" she started. She cautiously glanced in, wondering what she could see.
The TARDIS doors slammed shut from where Mickey had left them open. Danielle jumped, yelping in surprise, giving them only a glance before the light changed again and pulled her attention back to Rose. The light was streaming into her eyes, narrowing down as a non-existent wind blew around her.
"Rose!" Danielle cried, rushing over to try and pull her away. Instead the TARDIS shifted and she fell to the ground as the column in the middle groaned. They were in flight!
Outside, Mickey was making his way up to the TARDIS, a box of cables and other devices in hand. If Rose wanted to get to the Doctor, then fine. He was going to do everything he could to help.
Of course, he didn't expect to be left stood there, stunned as the TARDIS dematerialised in front of him. He dropped the box and ran forward. "Rose!"
~0~0~0~
The Doctor was out of options. There was no one left standing between the Daleks and the Earth apart from him, and he only had one, very deadly option left. Everyone was dead, including Jack, and he was surrounded by Daleks. He held the onto the final detonator pointedly.
"You really want to think about this, because if I activate the signal, every living creature dies," he warned them all.
The Emperor Dalek, who had been on screen, had been waiting for him to fail. "I am immortal."
"Do you want to put that to the test?" the Doctor challenged.
"I want to see you become like me. Hail the Doctor, the Great Exterminator."
The words angered him and he took hold of the plunger-like switch with both hands. "I'll do it!"
"Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you, coward or killer?"
Killer. He'd never wanted to be a killer. He'd just wanted to help people, and see the universe. He wanted to do good, but all he had been able to do was destroy everything he touched.
Well, not everything. Both Rose and Danielle were safe in the past, living out their normal human lives. It had been a silly dream anyway, hadn't it? She had been so much younger than him, and he was so damaged. She was better off with someone she could live the rest of her life with. Someone who could share her passion and her love of the world around her.
He looked down again at the plunger. Not someone who would destroy it. She'd never want him to do it. More than that, she'd want him to see that he'd never want to do it himself.
His hands fell away from the switch. He couldn't do it. He was never going to be able to do it. "Coward," he replied simply. "Any day."
"Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness," the Emperor told him.
"And what about me? Am I becoming one of your angels?"
"You are the heathen. You will be exterminated."
He shifted, resigned to his fate. "Maybe it's time." He closed his eyes, ready for his fate, knowing that in the end, he'd managed to save her this time around. He'd managed, just once, to save Danielle Song.
It was a weird thought that took him by surprise, because not only did it not make any sense but it had absolutely no basis at all. When hadn't he saved her?
Before he could process it further, it was blown out of his head by the sound of the TARDIS materialising behind him, landing back where she had been parked just before he had sent her away.
"Alert! TARDIS materialising!"
The Doctor spun just in time to see the box fully appear and the doors fly open. From the inside a bright glow shone and he had to shield his eyes from it. Rose Tyler was stood in the doorway, eyes almost vacant as she stared out at the Daleks and the Doctor. The light and energy surrounding her swirled out into the room.
He couldn't believe his eyes. He could feel how powerful the thing that was using Rose was from across the room. He fell to the floor as the light grew and grew, until she was suddenly stood in front of him. She had tear streaks down her face, but she didn't look like she was crying anymore. "What've you done?!" he exclaimed.
"I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me," Rose replied. Her voice sounded soft, but he could hear the echoes of time that it held.
He was still so confused, but he couldn't help but glance around her. Danielle stumbled out of the TARDIS, eyes wide as she stared at Rose. She looked terrified. He had thought they were safe, but they had both come back. At least, by the looks of it, she was still just Danielle. A wave of relief rushed through him as she spotted him. She dashed over to his side, dropping to her knees so she was on the floor next to him. She clung to his arm and he held her close, hoping to protect her.
"What happened?" he asked. "What did you do?"
Danielle shook her head. "No-Nothing," she promised. "I just- I asked the TARDIS for help, and she opened up and there was this light. Rose looked into it, and then…" She looked up at her friend. "I don't think she's Rose anymore," she whispered.
The Doctor's gaze also shot up to Rose. "You looked into the Time Vortex!" he said. "Rose, no one's meant to see that."
"This is the Abomination!" the Dalek Emperor declared.
The Daleks turned to Rose and shot at her. "Exterminate!"
She held her hand up and stopped the bolt from the Dalek. She held it in place before it reversed, disappearing into nothingness.
"How did she do that?" Danielle whispered. She looked up at him. He could see her fear. "What is she?"
"I am the Bad Wolf," Rose explained instead. "I create myself." She looked up at the sign above the screen the Dalek Emperor was broadcasting on. Where the name 'Bad Wolf' stood in cold, metal lettering. With a wave of her hand the letters began to float through the air. "I take the words, I scatter them in time and space." She flung them to the side and they disappeared. "A message to lead myself here."
"Rose, you've got to stop this," the Doctor begged. "You've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn."
She looked down at him and the golden glow disappeared from her eyes. "I want you safe. My Doctor," she explained and his hearts clenched painfully. That was Rose, not whatever was controlling her. A little bit of his friend trickling through that said she was trying to control what was happening, but she wasn't. "Protected from the false god."
"You cannot hurt me. I am immortal," the Dalek Emperor declared
Her gaze snapped to him and the golden glow reappeared as Bad Wolf took its hold back. "You are tiny."
"What do we do?" Danielle asked him and he didn't have an answer. He had absolutely no idea how to save Rose. All logic said that she shouldn't have been alive now. She should have burnt up after she looked into the Vortex. He didn't understand, and if he didn't understand how was he supposed to stop something with the power of the time vortex behind it?
"We have to do something."
Danielle was holding onto him tightly. She was so happy that he was okay, but that didn't mean that she wasn't worried about Rose. Bad Wolf, whatever that was, felt so powerful that she wanted to cower away from it so who knew what it was doing to Rose? They couldn't just sit back and let her friend be consumed by the energy.
The Doctor was once again blown away by the fact that, even though she was looking to him for an answer, she wasn't looking at him to save the day. She was, and was willing to be, by his side through all of it and it made him feel less alone.
Bad Wolf waved its arms and the Daleks, the ships and the Emperor all began to disintegrate in the same golden light. It made it seem so easy, and that was terrifying.
"Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go," the Doctor encourage but she didn't even look at him.
"How can I let go of this? I bring life. The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?"
"Rose, you have to let it go," Danielle tried, hoping that perhaps she could get through to the blonde as well. "You've saved the Doctor; you've saved the day. There is nothing left to do. Let it go. Save yourself and let it go."
"I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be."
"Please," Danielle begged. "You need to let it go. Don't let it kill you, please."
Danielle was crying now because she could see the danger Rose was in and it scared her. But it was obvious that Rose didn't have enough control to be able to let Bad Wolf go. She needed someone who could to take it off her, to send the heart of the TARDIS back to where it should be. It would kill anyone. Ultimately the decision was an easy one. He couldn't let her die and he could never let Danielle cry.
He stood up and walked over to Rose, pulling her attention onto him. "I think you need a Doctor," he told her before he leant close. He placed a kiss on her forehead, drawing the Time Vortex out of her until she collapsed in his arms. He gently laid her on the floor before standing straight and sending the vortex back where it belonged. The TARDIS doors shut behind the light.
He stumbled, feeling the effects of what he had just done, and the choice he had made heavily. He also felt someone grab his side and he looked down to see Danielle struggling to prop him up. She hadn't given it a second thought; she had just rushed to help him even though she was quite the petite person and he was a giant.
He turned and cupped her face. He had hoped that he would have had longer with her, but he was glad she was safe. Perhaps the next Doctor would be a bit of a better fit for her. Someone who wasn't so timid, someone who wouldn't worry so much about the consequences of letting anyone close. Someone who looked the part, and talked the part.
He kissed her – properly, not like he'd kissed Rose. "My Danni-Girl," he said against her lips softly. Again, he wasn't sure where that had come from either. He had never called her it, in fact he'd very much stuck to her request of only being called Danielle.
She did smile slightly, although it was a little shaky. She looked down at Rose. "You-You said it was going to kill her. Is she…?"
"No, she's just unconscious," he cut in. He needed to get them moving. "Get the door, will you?"
She nodded but she didn't move right away. "You took it out of her. Does that mean that… Are you safe?"
The smile he sent to her as he scooped up Rose didn't satisfy her, or calm her worry, but she moved to get the TARDIS doors. She was very much relieved to see that the interior had returned to how she remembered it. There was no more sad light, and no more bright light that she was sure was burnt onto her eyes.
The Doctor laid Rose down on the floor before he headed over to the console to fly them away. He could already feel the change coming, he could feel his body shutting down. He really wished he'd taken the time to tell them both about this part of his lives, but in all fairness, he had hoped he'd had more time than it turned out he did. It wasn't fair, but he didn't regret it.
"Doctor," Danielle spoke up softly, stepping a little closer to him and away from Rose. "You-You never answered me. Are you safe?"
Rose stirred on the floor. "What happened?" she asked as she sat up, her head in her hand. Why did she have such a big headache?
"Don't you remember?" the Doctor asked her.
"It's like, there was this singing," she started slowly. She tried to force her brain to work, but it felt rather sluggish.
"That's right," he replied, sounding a little amused. "I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."
Danielle helped her off the floor. "You came to the TARDIS, because you'd found something you thought we could use to get back. There was this light and you looked into it." She looked over at the Doctor. "I still don't quite understand. The-The Doctor saved you, though, and…"
"You know," the Doctor interrupted. He didn't have long left and he wasn't sure what effect explaining Bad Wolf to Rose would have on her. He would have to try and remember to explain it to Danielle afterwards. "I was going to take you both to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses." He chuckled happily to himself. "Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny."
"Then, why can't we go?"
Danielle's chest clenched as a wave of anxiety rushed over her. "Are you taking us home?" she asked.
He shook his head. "No, of course not," he promised. "Hopefully you still will go. Hopefully I will too. But not like this."
The two women shared a look. "You're not making sense," Rose stated bluntly.
"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head." He looked at Danielle pointedly. "I hope you don't think that's an improvement."
She flushed, but her small smile said he hadn't offended her. He was glad. He didn't want to die with her upset at him. He was so happy she was here.
He sobered up slightly. "But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with."
He cried out in pain, flashing with the same light that had engulfed Rose. He doubled over and Danielle almost shoved Rose out of the way as she rushed to his side. "Doctor!"
Alarmed, he held his hand up. "Stay back!" he warned and she skidded to a stop.
"You are hurt," she exclaimed. "Let me help you."
"This isn't something you can help with," he said apologetically. "I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that. Every cell in my body's dying."
Danielle shook her head, tears in her eyes and he had hoped that he wouldn't see her cry again before the day was over.
"Can't you do something?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except," he paused and turned to Danielle. He wished he had more time to make her understand what was about to happen. He didn't want her to be scared, or confused when he changed face. He hoped beyond everything that whatever had been blooming between them didn't disappear with him. "It means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face. And before I go…"
"Don't say that."
"Before I go," he reiterated, "I just want to tell you, you were fantastic." She smiled and he turned to Danielle. "Absolutely fantastic," he told her and she smiled too. "And do you know what?" He grinned. "So was I."
His arms flew out to his side as he exploded in a light so bright that both girls had to turn away, huddling into each other as they watched him shift and change. Until, as if it never had happened, the light stopped. Stood where the Doctor had been was a completely different man, with different features and longer hair. He looked vaguely confused, but not as much as they did.
He took a moment and then looked over them. He felt himself brighten immensely at the sight of the pair, but mainly Danielle, who had looked like she had gone through hell but still looked amazing.
"Hello!" he exclaimed before almost gagging. He pulled a face as he ran his tongue over his teeth. "New teeth. That's weird. So, where was I?" He looked off, thoughtful before turning back to them, grinning once again. "Oh, that's right. Barcelona!"
Neither of the girls new how to react, but he didn't seem to care about that as he turned to the console. "6 PM... Tuesday... October... 5006... On the way to Barcelona!"
Danielle wasn't sure what she had seen, but she was suddenly snapped out of her stupor by him touching the console. "Hang on a minute!" she exclaimed, surprising Rose. She felt a little timid as she stepped forward, and she glanced down at the floor. She couldn't pull a bit of the grating up like she had done with Jack, could she? "Don't touch that!"
The man turned to her, a little confused. "Why-Why not?" he asked.
"Because-Because—" She looked at Rose for help, but the blonde looked completely bemused as well. She turned back and put her best cross face on. "Because she's not yours, that's why. You-You can't just go around stealing other people's space ships!"
The more she thought about what she was saying, the more she agreed with it. She had absolutely no idea where the Doctor was – her brain was telling her he was stood right in front of her, no one could just change like that – but he couldn't just start piloting the TARDIS like he owned the spot. She stormed over and smacked his hands away from it. "Don't touch her!"
The Doctor, who normally was quite amused by Danielle's angry outbursts, wasn't exactly happy it was being aimed at him. He could see the fear in her eyes at just the sight of him, and while it did hurt, he also couldn't help but notice how she held herself; back straight, glare straight at him. She was never going to back down and it was a trait he adored in her.
"Danielle, it's me," he told her softly. "The Doctor."
She shook her head. "No, no, you're not the Doctor. The Doctor is… Well, he's not you, is he? He's Northern, for one."
"You saw me, I-I changed, right in front of you."
She shook her head, turning to Rose to see if she believed him. Rose was looking at him suspiciously, but also rather frightened and that angered her even more. She turned back to him. "No, because if that really was something you could do- that the Doctor could do, then he would have mentioned it. We've been in plenty of situations where we could have died, so if he really could evolve like a bloody Pokémon then he would have mentioned it! He wouldn't have just sprung it on us five seconds before it happened!"
He looked a little sheepish. "Ah, well, yeah, I probably should have," he admitted. "But, but, it really is me." He stepped closer to her, taking her hand in his. She didn't resist, which was a good sign, but she also didn't hold it back. He could change that. "I'm still the same man who found you in his home, who you told you just wanted to look, because you were being nosy. The same man you told you were worried about being selfish when you agreed to travel with him." She looked down at their hands. She had said those things, and she'd not told anyone else. He took another step closer. "And the man who made you feel left out when he danced with everyone else but not her, and the man you got to ask you anyway."
Her breath had caught in her chest and she, cautiously, looked up at him. She knew what she had seen, but it had been so hard to believe. But how could see deny it when he looked at her like that? "Doctor?" she whispered.
He grinned at her and nodded. "Hello, Danni-Girl," he whispered softly.
"What's going on?" Rose asked from behind them. "Who are you?"
Danielle turned to her, letting go of his hand. "He's the Doctor," she said, walking over to her. "You saw it too. He-He exploded, then changed bodies."
"I was dying. To save my own life I changed my body. Every single cell, but... it's still me," he explained, hopefully to try and settle her nervousness around him. Now that Danielle seemed to be warming to the new him, he hoped he could get Rose to feel the same.
She looked to Danielle, who nodded to show that she agreed with his statement. "I-I think he's telling the truth."
He straightened slightly, grinning, quite pleased that it was going better than he expected. "Now, then," he declared. "What do I look like?" He quickly held up his hand. No, no no, no no no no no no no. No. Don't tell me." He began feeling himself. "Let's see... two legs, two arms, two hands... Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle." His hands flew to his hair. "Hair! I'm not bald! Oh, Oh! Big hair!"
Rose didn't feel right about what she'd seen, but then again, she'd had a very stressful day. "Can you change back?"
The Doctor paused as he checked himself over. It wasn't a question he'd wanted either of them to ask, but he had expected it. "Do you want me to?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
"Oh."
"Can you?"
He shook his head. He couldn't quite look at her. "No," he replied softly.
It was quite obvious that the question hurt him, and Danielle stepped forward to offer some comfort to him. "Do you want to leave?" he asked them both.
Danielle froze and Rose felt slightly offended. "Do you want us to leave?" she demanded.
"No!" he quickly replied, almost horrified they would think that. He could tell by the look on their faces they did, though. "But... your choice... if you want to go home..."
He walked over to the console. "Cancel Barcelona. Change to... London... the Powell Estate... ah... let's say the 24th of December." He looked up at Danielle and shot her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. He didn't know, he needed more time to get used to the looks this new face could pull. "Consider it a Christmas present."
"You're really taking me home?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly. She had tears in her eyes and he wanted nothing more to wipe them away.
Was that the kind of man he was going to be, now? A sappy, sentimental type of man?
It wasn't the worst thing he could think of.
"Up to you," he offered. "Back to your mum, both of you. It's all waiting. Fish and chips, sausage and mash, beans on toast... no, Christmas! Turkey! Although," he looked over at Rose. "Having met your mother... nut loaf would be more appropriate."
Rose smiled but tried to hide it. "Oh, come on, all I did was change, I didn't..."
He gagged again, contorting in pain as he doubled over. "Doctor!" Danielle cried as she rushed to his side to help hold him up. Rose appeared on the other side, doing the same.
"Are you alright?" Rose asked but he just twisted and retched again. He straightened up only for golden dust to appear out of his mouth. "What's that?"
"Oh, that change is going a bit wrong, I'm all…" He gagged again, falling to his knees so fast he fell out of Rose's grip and brought Danielle down with him.
"We should go back," Danielle suggested. "Maybe Jack's still alive somewhere, he knows more about this than we do."
His face contorted, this time in anger rather than pain as he thought about the man who continued to flirt with her, even though it was painfully obvious that she didn't feel the same in return. Well, he'd shown the other man. Even without looking he could tell he'd regenerated rather handsomely.
"Gah, he's busy! He's got plenty to do rebuilding the Earth!" he snapped. He pulled himself up with the console and was distracted immediately by a lever that appeared at eye level. "I haven't used this one in years."
He flicked it and the TARDIS shuddered violently, sending them all flying. "What are you doing?" Rose demanded.
The Doctor pulled himself around the console, pushing buttons as he went. "Putting on a bit of speed!" he exclaimed, sounding more and more crazed as he did. "That's it! My beautiful ship! Come on, faster! That's a girl! Faster! Wanna to break the time limit?!"
Danielle pulled herself up next to Rose, who was clinging onto the console for dear life. "Stop it!" they both shouted in unison.
"Ah, don't be so dull... let's have a bit of fun!" he snapped at them. "Let's rip through that vortex!"
He bent over the console and, for a moment, he seemed to calm down. The manic look in his eye faded and he looked just as worried as they felt. "The regeneration's going wrong. I can't stop myself." He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut in pain. "Ah, my head..."
Just as quickly as he calmed down he jumped back into life, springing away from the console and he began to play with the controls again. "Faster! Let's open those engines!"
Rose looked up as an alarm began to sound. "What's that?"
The Doctor grinned. "We're gonna crash land!" he crowed, delighted as he spun around the console.
"Then stop it!" Danielle demanded. "Doctor, please!"
"Too late! Out of control," he said, giggling with delight until he came back to their side. He grabbed Danielle, pulling her off the console and up against him. "Christmas Eve!" he said happily. "Hold onto me tight, Danielle. Here we go!"
~0~0~0~
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